Merry Christmas David! Love, Laura

Dear David,

It has been a pleasure to serve you this year.  I decided I wanted to type up your journals and share them with the family as my service project.  I have felt you closer to me as I read each entry.  

You make me laugh with so many of the stories you tell—your extravagant dates at the ranch, and screaming about bugs your first weeks in Mexico.  You did a great job capturing a lot of who you really are in your journal entries.   Jumping around from one topic to another, sharing some of your deepest thoughts, I can almost hear your voice talking to me through the pages.  Sometimes it has made me miss you so much, I’ve had to take a little break from typing them every now and then. 

You started keeping a journal in the fall of 1993 just before your 14^th birthday.   

Here is an idea of what many of the entries are like:

September 1993I can't believe it's been a week. It's gone by quickly. I have had a nice time at school and today I was ordained president of the Deacons quorum. There is a lot of responsibility in that. I'm doing nicely in my classes and today Brian, (Liz's boyfriend) and Brian's parents will be joining us for dinner. Sorry there wasn't much to say, bye.

----Sorry that last week wasn't very exciting but I can't think of what to really say. Booooring!!!! There really isn't anything to talk about except for I made some progress on my Eagle Scout project which is making three rocking horses and rocking chairs for two hospitals and one homeless shelter.

---This week I finished learning the alphabet in keyboarding and completed my Eagle project and now all I have to do for my eagle is have a board of review.
This week I really started to realize how much the Scriptures help me. I might be thinking too highly of myself but at the time being life is great. I'm the Deacons president, I've all but got my Eagle, doing great in all my classes except PE and I've got a great family.
I'm thankful for my Heavenly Father and I'm gaining a testimony that he loves me and at the church and scriptures are true. I'm thankful for my family, friends, Scout troop, deacons and deacon’s leaders and church leaders. Now I've just got to work on some self-esteem issues. Nothing to worry about.

Because you were so good at keeping a personal history, 

(with 7 journals) this project has taken longer than anticipated.  Of course your wonderful handwriting didn’t slow things down a bit either.  (ahhhh…..note to self, type up my own journals so my posterity doesn’t have to decipher my handwriting at a later date…) 

I’m sorry to say that I’ve only made it through the first two journals which cover the high school years through the first 2 months on your mission.  There are so many great stories and treasures of testimony that I look forward to reading and typing up the rest of the journals soon. 

One of my favorite parts of your High School journal is reading about your summers at the Ranch.  It has been fun to see it through your eyes and feel of the love you have for that beautiful place (and all the girls in Orderville).  I know it was a major part of your life and you loved growing closer to your Aunts, Grandparents and Cousins there:

August 6, 1996
Today is fast Sunday and my last day here at the ranch. How depressing. The activity on Tuesday was a major hit. It was spectacular. We talked Mike B into letting us use his speakers and we use Dixie's stereo and we had a great sound system up there. We had to plug it into a noisy old generator we drug up there with a quad but it was okay because we could hear the music over its noisy engine. And there was swimming, boating, volleyball, dancing and eating. Both words were up there. There was probably me, 6 other guys and about 35 other girls! Yes!

6/30/1997
Last night me and Julia Hicks were the only ones on the entire ranch!  We were really scared of ghosts and stuff, which made it lots of fun up in our barn.  After watching Titanic we talked for 4 hours about problems and spiritual experiences.  It was really deep and awesome.  I probably spent 2 hours talking about advice for High School, how to make friends and to always smile and say "hi".  It was the most detailed I had ever talked to someone about my theories on socialism.
We also talked about how cool it would be when all of the cousins kids (like mine and Julia's) were as close as me and my cousins.  So that all of my kids, Jake's kids, Johnny's kids, Laura's kids, Ben's kids--everyone--being first and second cousins alike, would know and love each other like I know and love my 1st cousins.  And how awesome it will be when all 250 of us have reunions at Clear Creek Ranch, the world famous family reunion get away resort.  And how us, the owners, will hold our own reunions there, how big our talent shows would be, and how at every testimony meeting we would talk about how grateful we were for Jim Bodell and his hard work, and Maydene Bodell and her loving spirit, and how none of this would be possible if it weren't for them. 

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It was great to read more about your spiritual side on your mission.  Lots of entries about your testimony and how it was growing, (and lots about how much you missed Amber Judkins…)  I especially love how you ended that journal with this funny story and then your brief testimony.  I’ll let your entry be the final words of this post, but know that I love you so much, I’m grateful for your example of being an awesome journal writer, and I want to be just like you!!

Merry Christmas David,

I love you,

Laura

You had been in Mexico for 11 days when you wrote this:

 2/20/1999
It’s only between 6:00 or 6:30 in the morning right now, but I’m too scared to use the bathroom right now.  I’ll tell you why in a second, so I’m writing in my journal.
Last night, I had a funny experience, that I know will never be as funny when I try to re-tell it or write it down as when it really happened, but I’m gonna write it anyway.  I was in the process of changing into my PJs in my room, when all of the sudden there’s this huge cockroach sitting on my floor.  Now, I hate cockroaches.  I don’t know why, I’ve probably only ever seen 2 in the USA my whole life—maybe just from the movies, like Men in Black—is from where I’m scared.
Right at this moment, this crazy song starts playing on Elder Ramirez’s stereo.  He has this tape of Hymns we listen to, and I don’t know why, but there’s this zany circus like song in the middle, and it came on.  Then, the chase began.  I felt too mean to squish him, so I wanted to capture him and take him outside.  So, I found a box, and with the circus music accompanying us, chased him around my room, through my stuff and luggage.  I caught him 3-4 times, but he was too quick and I couldn’t shut the lid on him.  But finally he wasn’t quick enough, and BAM! He was mine!
I realized that my box had multiple holes big enough from him to easily slide through, and while I was holding it, all I could do was imagine him making his way out of the box, up my arm, and into my shirt.  I seriously would have died right there, and the obituary and ads in the Tribune would be pretty embarrassing for my family.
So I decided I needed to get rid of this box quick.  So I started running around in circles in the kitchen, circus music playing along trying to decide where to take the box.  It took me a second to realize the only logical answer and the whole purpose of my conquest-outside!
So I dart for the front door, forgetting everything my companion told me about staying in your room while in garments—so the outside world won’t see them.  So I get 5 feet from the door, box in hand ready to throw, when I remember the huge fiesta that’s going on literally right outside our front door.  That’s when I remember I was only half way through getting changed into PJs before this extravaganza began, and looked up to see out our front window-- all the people, and I don’t know how many were looking right back.  Doh!
Well, images of a tickling sensation of something up my arm and into my shirt didn’t leave me standing dumbfounded in my underwear in full light in front of my audience for one more second.  I darted back for the only other option—the back door!  Upon reaching it, I remembered one problem—how difficult it is to open, even when both hands are free, and seeing that I only had one, I couldn’t imagine how I could possibly get it ajar, just cause it was such a tight fit with the lock and usually took me quite a while of jiggling and pulling to open it.
So I started panicking, running in circles in our kitchen again, handling the box like a hot potato, with the circus song still going.  I started thinking about how ugly the critter was, with his long antennas, and was suddenly motivated to do something fast.  For a second, I thought the front door with all those people watching would have to do.  But when I got halfway there, I couldn’t bear the thought of all those people watching me, in my underwear, burst out of the front door, screaming like a little girl, as if the house were on fire, and through away a single little harmless cockroach.  I knew by this time that my cockroach must soon be finding one of the holes, so I hurriedly ran to the back door, and with all the adrenaline pumping through my blood, single handedly yanked open the door in one pull.  I quickly opened my box to toss my victim into the weeds, but he wasn’t there!  As you can imagine, my imagination started running wild with all the places he could be right now, paying close attention to all the places where I really didn’t want him to be.
I did a quick body check, and when I found I was clean, I decided to would go back and finish changing.  On the way to the room—augh---there he was--in the kitchen!  And with my circus music our chase continued.  Eventually I ended up sweeping him out the back door, with the box rather than using it to pick him up.  It was safer that way.  And as soon as he was out, I took a deep breath, and the song ended.  Just as if it was out of a movie.
I went to bed last night feeling pretty good about myself and my accomplishment, thinking I had just rid the world of cockroaches, but as I would find out later this morning, well, let’s just say I wasn’t as successful as I had thought…..(to be continued)……
I woke up this morning to the rooster’s cock-a-doodle-doo next door, well, it was actually my alarm clock, but the roosters were cock-a-doodle-dooing also.  I said my prayer and did my pushups, and headed for the bathroom.  I drowsily flipped on the light (which only works when it wants to, about half the time) and beheld a scene from straight out of an Indian Jones movie.  No more than 2 inches from where my fingers had just flipped the switch, perched about 15 black cockroaches, varying from the size of my friend the night before, up to the length of 4 inches long.  I was frozen with fear, and literally didn’t move for at least 5-7 minutes, standing in the doorway, clueless as to what I should do.   Eventually I slowly backed away, and started writing in my journal about last night, waiting for Elder Ramirez to wake up and do something about it.  After writing for a while, I started thinking about how foolish I was acting, and that I should go do something about it myself.  So I headed back to the bathroom, thinking about what I would do.  There was no way I was going to have a 15 minute chase with each one like last night and save their lives, but the thought of their 3D corpses crunching under my shoe was unbearable.  Maybe, I thought, I’d be inspired what to do when I got there.  Upon arriving, I saw a cockroach crawling up the door, so I swatted him off.  No sooner had I swatted him off, than he opened a huge pair of wings and flew straight at my face!  I think I screamed and woke up Elder Ramirez.  After that, there was no way I was going to do anything about it, so I whined and cried until Elder Ramirez went and torched them with his spray and lighter.  Oh yeah, he cooked em’ good.  And once again, I thought we had seen the end of “las cucarachas”.  But once again, I had a surprise waiting for me…..(to be continued)…….
So later today, I went to go to the bathroom.  While in the bathroom, I heard this faint scratching sound.  Well, I thought it was Elder Ramirez since he had been teasing me about the cockroaches all day, ever since this morning.  I was going to yell something to him, like “ya, really funny!” when all of the sudden out of a tiny, hole in the wall next to me, emerged 5-6 tiny white cockroaches!  Oh no!  There’s a nest, and they’re starting to hatch!  Once again, I was wrong when I thought the world had been saved from the ugly crunchy critters, but I found out that our problems were just beginning.  Apparently our wall is  some kinda new breeding ground for ‘em, and it’s full of babies, larva, and who knows what else.  My hero once again torched all that were in full view, but I have this funny feeling there’s many more surprises hiding inside our bathroom wall.  Elder Ramirez says we need to buy some kind of poison for them.  I’ll let you know how it goes…
Let me close this book with a few thoughts.  My life really is great.  All though I myself am far from perfect, I dare say that my life is pretty darn close to being perfect.  Everything is exactly how and where I want it right now.  I don’t have any major problems, or anything.  I love the mission field.  I’m still adjusting to the people, language, food, lifestyle, schedule, companion and what not, but I know everything is going to be just perfect.  I also know that any hard times I do go through, will just be the Lord smoothing out my rough spots, turning me into a smooth, slick, polished rock.  It’ll all be for my own good.  Besides, it’s like something said to me recently, which hit me hard, and it’s also something that I’m constantly reminded of here in Campeche, because all the little boys here are constantly flying their kites they make out of garbage.  What I was told was “Remember, a kite only flies against the wind.”